This isn't a great picture but it's one of the few of Shane and I together. My big boy is closing in on 2 years old. Where does the time go!

You can't see it in this picture but Keith has a bungy cord around him for his seatbelt which we dubbed his redneck seatbelt.

Like me, he's from Texas. Unlike me, he never lost the accent so he enjoys lots of redneck jokes.

Look for your redneck seatbelt in stores this Christmas.

The Farm continued

Ok, I managed to get 1 whole picture to load.

This seems to be the only picture I have of Shane and Jennifer standing near each other. I think they have a love/hate relationship. He loves her toys, sippy cup, etc, and she hates it when he pushes her down and takes her stuff.

He's the youngest of four and a total bruiser. She's an only child and a princess in training. Hopefully, she'll learn to love him one day. :)

Weekend at the farm

Oy! Where does time go!
We went to the farm to celebrate Aunt Cindy's and Ella's birthdays. Ella's isn't really until November but she was adament that she have a "princess party with Aunt Cindy." So we did.

I'm just going to post the pictures I actually had time to go through w/o my .02.

Nacho is supposed to send me some primo footage of the princess in her full regalia (or however you spell it). I was minding Shane the Freight Train while she was trying on her princess gear.

Without further ado...

argh! i actually have a few minutes and blogger is not loading pix very well.

sorree folks, parks closed. moose out front should have told you. Bill that was for you.

For the normal folks...i'll try again another day. :)

They lined an aviary with hay bales and then filled the bottom with loose corn. What fun. The kids dubbed it the corn pool and had a great time jumping into it.

Making Corn Angels
Hank with his good friend, A

They had a moonbounce at ground level. This was new from last year. Even the grown ups had to try this out. I love Ella's determined look.
Shane loved this, too. He didn't weigh enough to really bounce though so he enjoyed lying in the sand that surrounded the bounce. I found sand in his ears, belly button, pockets, you name it!

The Pumpkin Patch with our Friends

We went to Summers Farm last week with our playgroup. In the past we've gone in the morning since that's when our group met. This year everyone's schedule worked better for us to go in the afternoon. What a difference! No huge screaming school kids to dodge. We had the place to ourselves and the kids could take their time at each place and just play. They came away exhausted and dirty so I think they had fun.

I put this one in so you can see just how high "hay mountain" is. All the kids run like maniacs to these slides. They have another set that are even higher and steeper. My challenge was to keep Shane from going down by himself! That kid is fearless and fast!

These two are

17 months apart in age.

These two are 2 years, 4 months apart in age. I think the size difference is funny because our current "question d'jour" by strangers centers around the assumption that Ella and Shane are very close in age.
He's in his underpants because he bathed in applesauce at lunch when I turned my back, and I have a mountain of laundry to do and didn't want to add anymore to it

Silly Pumpkins

Ella and Hank were very unsure of all the "pumpkin people" placed here and there, but they loved the pirate ship and train playground so they were willing to walk the gauntlet of weird stuff.

Pumpkin Picking

Apple Picking

The Vikings Have Landed

I accidentally deleted this picture from the blog and now I can't get it back on in the right order so here it is. This is my little cheeseball after muscling his sister and brother off the table so he could stand and say cheese. Such a cutie. He wants to do what they are doing and tries so hard. He really is adorable and a little rotten, too. :)

Last week we read about vikings. Very interesting stuff. Then Hank got sick and we had to miss co-op. He was so disappointed because we were going to make Viking long ships. Mrs. B very kindly set aside 2 kits so Ella and Hank could make their long ships at home.

We went to pick up Jake from c0-op and got the kits. Hank was so excited he wanted to build his right there in the parking lot.

The long ships (note the moose in the background trying to find his place on the stage)

So cute

The Jerks??

Soccer has started and Hank is on "the big boy team" for the first time. He's one of the youngest on his team but he's very scrappy so he's doing pretty well.

He loves recounting the night's practice and game on the way home. The coaches let the kids choose the names of their teams each week, but you can imagine my surprise when Hank told me the other team was the Jerks.

Later that night the light came on in my head....they were the SHIRTS! Hank was on the team wearing the pinnies so the coaches called the other team "shirts." I guess the kids couldn't come up with a name for their team that night.

Last night, 10/8, the teams were the Possums and the Redskins.